Second Time Around

Al Hamra Oman, Oman

Second Time Around Part I

I wanted to remind you when you read this blog you can click on the photos to see a larger image of it. Enjoy….

Stewarts daughter, Jessie came for a short visit and we wanted to take her to some of our favorite places and a few new ones for us. We had to show her the desert, have her ride a camel and take her to the Old Castle Museum. We have been wanting to visit the Old Misfat House that is in an ancient village up in the mountains that we have heard so much about. We were on a time schedule since we had to be at the parking lot in the ancient village by 5:00 to be shown the way to the Old House. This would be our first visit.

We started with visiting the Old Misfat House in Misfat Al Abriyyin. Our first stop on the way was to visit a 17th century Nizwa Fort in Nizwa. It dates back to the 9th century and rebuilt in the 17th century and has now be renovated. This is the second fort I’ve visited. This one had much more information about the fort and the people of this region. I loved the structure of the very top of the fort and had fun kneeling down next to the canons and looking out the little windows set up for the cannons to shoot out of. While we were in Nizwa, Stewart and I thought it would be fun to stop by and visit the tailor who we had spent time talking with a few months ago. He had given us some of the best dates we have had so far in Oman. (other than the ones from Mohammed’s farm). The tailor’s name is German and is from India. He was there and he recognized us immediately and jumped up from behind his sewing machine and offered us coffee. We stayed awhile visiting him. Stewart bought a sleeping disdasha and I bought some fabric. He invited us to visit his family in India and said Christmas is a great time to be there. Oh how I wish that would be possible. We wanted to get in a hike before the Old House, so we said good bye and headed into the mountains.

Nizwa Fort

Nizwa Souk

The Grand Canyon of Oman up in the Al Hajar Al Gharbi mountain range was where we chose to go. There is a balcony walk where the peak is 1,900 m high along an edge walking path. (That’s where the name “balcony walk” came from).The ride to the starting point was spectacular. The road wound back and forth and in and out of these stark mountains. Since there are no trees I could see the passage from afar, not knowing that what was ahead of us was a gravel road. This was a challenge for Jessy and I because there was so much bouncing and turning happening. I kept telling myself to not look out or down for it made me dizzy….We finally got to the starting point that was up on the highest peak. When we arrived we were greeted by goats who would have loved to get in the car and rest. There were a few homes up there and a couple of Bedouin women came out of their homes to sell their hand made goods. I couldn’t say no and bought a braided key chain made from goats fur and dyed …. As soon as we started walking we could see the canyon and it was beautiful, so different than the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which has multi colors oozing down the cliffs. This canyon is grey, black and beige. The hike was not difficult but it was hot so we took many stops to hydrate and take photos. It’s hard for a photo to show the enormous, mammoth sight we were looking at. We passed a few people coming back from the hike, they seemed to be about my age and they looked very tired. I took that as a warning. Coming back was going to be uphill. At the end of this path is an abandoned village. Disappointedly, we did not make it to the village due to our timing. We had a drive to make to get to our evening destination. The hike was fun, literally walking on the edge, a 1,000 ft drop at any moment.

Back to the car we went where the goats had taken advantage of the shade it produced and were ready for some petting. We changed shoes and said good bye to the goats.

We arrived at the old village in good time and had plenty of daylight in front of us. We followed our host through this abandoned village. Well almost abandoned. I could hear children’s voices as we walked along the narrow stone passages and stairways. I couldn’t help but wonder who all have walked these paths and what did they do in this village. At one point we did see the children and their mother. The children stared at us in awe and hid around corners watching us as the mother shooed them off.

This village is made of mud brick houses and they are crumbling away. I was told that they are raising money to restore the buildings in the village with the goal of making it a historical village. This is a good idea. I’ve seen plenty of decrepit, ruined mud homes in different areas of Oman but the charm of this village is different due to the fact that it’s built into a mountain ridge and there is a spring that supports the families needs.

We reached the Old Misfat House and were given water and dates and sat for a rest while they checked us in. This old house was restored and added onto to make it an Inn. The people in the village (those that are still there) frowned on this idea of tourists walking about their village and did not understand the concept of people staying in someone’s house. The owners of the old house who have grown up in the village where sensitive to all the concerns and offered to sell products that the villagers have made like herbs, honey, dates, date syrup and hand made bags etc. There are a few villagers employed to make breakfast and dinner for the old house, which makes the experience staying there even more authentic eating traditional Omani food. Eventually the concept of people staying in old houses has been accepted with most of the people in the village and others are thinking maybe they should do the same.

The restoration of this old house was done tastefully and with integrity keeping it the original style. There are a few rooms with a private bath and 5 rooms that share the toilet and shower. But there are 4 toilets and showers in one bath house so it’s not as bad as one would think.

The room we stayed in could sleep 4 to 5 people, they had 3 comfortable pads on the floor. When looking out the 4 windows I could see the tops of the date trees. I could hear a sound of doves and donkeys and a machine in the distance and decided it was a rototiller. I decided to follow the sound walking through these old winding paths, while doing so I passed by some ancient falaj’s. Then I saw a man with the rototiller tilling up the ground on a small terraced area. We talked for awhile and he showed my his compost pile and explained a few of their gardening techniques. He was Omani and spoke good english.

This village built on a mountain side is unique with these terraced plantations where date palms, bananas, mangos are grown. Normally these trees would be growing in the valleys near a wadi. There are old natural springs here and very old ancient falajes that were built into the landscape of the mountains edge over 200 yrs ago. The amount of water distributed here is determined by the size of the plantations. There are wonderful paths that take you through the plantations and through a small wadi. We walked these paths in the morning and were amazed with all that we saw and we took our time taking it all in. We could hear the sound of water running and would search around to see where it was coming from. Then we’d spot an area where the water was draining downhill from one falaj to another. The terraced plantations are small with healthy plants that are productive. I took notice of the soil, it was red in color with compost added. This is the first place I’ve been where the practice of composting is a regular practice. Also along the walk were a number of flowers to admire, from trees and shrubs.

At one point we walked across a narrow wadi to the other side of a rock basin. As we followed the stone steps up the hill there were more terraced gardens. At one point I looked across the wadi to where we had just come from and could see the overall picture of the terraces. It’s a very special place and to think this tribe found the fresh springs and knew this would be a place to live with fresh water along the mountain side. Then they created these terraces for their gardens. Well done.

We headed out of town and started heading back towards Muscat with the idea we would stop at a few places on the way. The photos will complete this story.

On our way back to Muscat we stopped at Old Tanuf ruins and wadi which is along the mountain range. These ruins were bombed by the British in the 1950’s under the order of the current Sultan of Oman’s father, Sultan Said bin Taymur. The people of the village escaped by going further into the wadi and the mountains that swallow the wadi when it rains. But in 1958-59 the tribe was attacked again in the Jabal Akhard war and had to once again find refuge elsewhere.

Before we reached the ruins we walked past an interesting tree. I had to investigate it. I had no idea what it was but thought the fruit looked like a fig, i couldn’t figure out if what I saw was a vine growing around the tree or was part of the tree. I had decided the vine like vegetation was part of the tree.

I have now found out what it is. It’s called a Suqum tree in the ficus (fig) family. It was planted near water in northern Oman. Edible fruit by people and animals. And the tree is most likely 100 yrs old. I started reading about this tree and have learned that Buddha sat under one of these trees in India and there is where he attained enlightenment. Some of the tree branches from that specific tree where cut and planted in a golden urn, a beautiful new tree grew. A king daughter took the golden urn with her onto a ship and carried it to Sri Lanka to present it to the king.The story goes on….
It is said that the fig tree is the tree that shaped human history…..Just saying. I now understand why I was so absorbed with the tree. Now I want to go back and take some seeds from it.

RUINS OF TANUF

The photos will show the depth of destruction to the village. While exploring the ruins each of us made contact with different individuals which was interesting. I visited with a man who was walking through the ruins to the mosque near by. He lives in the area and loves the history of the ruins and the wadi. He went to school in Fort Collins in the 70’s. Pretty interesting to me because I was planning on going to school there during that same time period. (which did not happen). We visited for some time then said our ma’ aa ssalama (good bye).

I found Jessie talking to a woman from Russia who is with a film crew. They have been hired by the country to do a historical film on the Muslim faith and were shooting at the site.

I found Stewart sitting on a stone wall talking to 2 Muslim men. I walked up to them and listened. These two men work for the Ministry of Religion and are working with the film crew. Stewart was explaining the work he is doing here and these men were very interested and said their ministry should be working with them to help make these plans work out. It was a good contact and they plan to meet up. Go figure….out in the ruins of Oman to make connections.

From a distance I could see what might be a dam so I pointed it out. We decided to drive over there and see. It was a dam. There we discovered it was the mouth of a wadi. Stewart put the car in 4 wheel drive and we drove into the wadi. There was a road that was compacted but the drive was very bumpy. It was a spectacular wadi. The mountains are huge cliffs. The stone had so much movement in it and there were caves around each curve. Blending in with all the stone were blonde goats and many of them. I was impressed with the size of the trees throughout the whole drive in.

This wadi can be dangerous due to the fact that there is no high ground to run to if it starts to rain. As I said before the mountains are right up to it. So if it was raining in the mountains and you didn’t know it there could be flash floods in the wadi. Kinda scary to think of. We drove into the this wadi about 4 miles and then turned around.

I would like to go back there and walk along the road into the mountains. It’s a magical place.